


idealism sits in prison (innocence died screaming)

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: the odds were never in our favor [7]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Dark, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, No Incest, Politics, Pre-Canon, Pregnancy, Prostitution, Survival, Victors, bonding in the face of utter horror, but in a stunted sort of way, but still not shipping the hargreeves sibs, klaus and allison are both victors, like they're not related in this 'verse, nothing untoward is explicitly described on page, the prostitution is only referenced but it's dub-con as fuck, what having a child in panem is like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-18 09:11:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Over the years after Claire's birth, Allison and Klaus pass each other at parties, each on the arm of a different Capitolite, and they lock gazes sometimes, natural brown eyes surrounded by makeup recognizing each other from across a room. They understand each other, in this wretched shared empathy. They understand this loss of innocence, this game of survival.Occasionally, they'll have dinner together, get drunk together, talk through slurred words and the debauchery of Capitol parties. Klaus uses drugs a lot more than Allison does to deal with everything, and she doesn't blame him.And every year, the Games arrive, and every year, they each lose two tributes, Klaus usually a lot quicker than Allison. (Allison has to wonder which is worse- the knowledge that there is no hope that Klaus lives with, or the savage dagger of hope that skewers her every year, when her tributes make it to the Final Eight, Four, and sometimes Final Two but always end up dying anyway.)But they get used to it, just like they got used to the politics and the unwanted sex and the absence of Claire. In order to survive, to stay even a little sane, you have to learn what you cannot change.





	idealism sits in prison (innocence died screaming)

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "From Eden" by Hozier.
> 
> Allison won the 67th Games and Klaus the 69th, for timeline purposes.
> 
> Also, despite this being the least explicit death-wise in the series, this fic honestly feels to me like the darkest one in this series due to its themes of the sexual exploitation of underage children. Such themes are mentioned some in HG canon, but are addressed a little more directly here.

_girl,_ _that unforgiving powder keg in your chest has been lighting up like midday in july and you are not afraid of bursting._

_this is how you kept standing._

_this is how you were strong enough, to dig the fear out of your chest and brave enough to let it back in._

_if people could see the monsters and the flowers in the framework of you, they would fall to their knees._

**-Ashe Vernon**

 

 

Claire’s father isn’t a Capitolite that has paid to fuck Allison. He isn’t even another Victor. He’s that year's tribute, an old classmate of Allison's named Brian. They sleep together for a few nights before his Games, and there shouldn't have been a problem. She's been on birth control for years now, as long as she's been serving as one of the Capitol's Victor whores, and she should have been fine.

But then her tribute loses the Games to that skinny boy from Eight, and the pregnancy test declares her pregnant. Well, shit.

When Allison goes into the Games, she’s fifteen and arrogant. When she gets pregnant, she’s eighteen and vulnerable and she's terrified of what's going to happen to the little bundle growing inside of her.

But she doesn't let her anxiety show. She's the closest thing to a politician that the Victors have- she knows how to put up a face when necessary.

She weighs the positives and negatives of having a child, what a baby could give her emotionally, politically, and economically. Allison is no fool- in fact, she's one of the most adept manipulators in the Capitol. She knows how to use whatever she can to get whatever she can get her hands on.

So Allison announces her pregnancy, and for nine months, President Hargreeves doesn’t press her to sleep with anyone. All he does is watch her, hawk-eyed and malevolent, as she makes her usual rounds at parties, trades Sponsorships for the next Games in exchange for invitations to her baby shower, lets the Capitolites fawn over her slowly growing stomach.

Allison isn’t the most popular Victor whore in the Capitol anymore, not with the introduction of Klaus, but when she shows up to Capitol events with a rounded belly the women all coo and so do some of the men. Her pregnancy is an attraction, a marvel to Capitol citizens who have their children created in incubators and artificial wombs.

(She can't make Sponsorships by fucking her way into them, but Allison's always been good with people. She knows how to get her way with the resources she has, whatever they may be.)

She meets up with Klaus at the President’s Ball at the conclusion of his Victory Tour. He's filled out a little since she last saw him at the end of his Games, his cheekbones and collarbones no longer poking through the skin, but nothing else about him seems healthy.

"Allison!" Klaus shouts, voice far too jovial, far too inebriated. He holds out a hand to her stomach, flashing his black-lacquered nails as he points. "Mind if I?"

He isn’t quite hammered yet, but he’s on his way. His pupils are dilated under half-lids that are slathered with sparkling eye makeup, his lips lined with dark red and his face shimmering with some kind of foundation.

And his outfit- it's a giant leather and fur coat, with a black lace crop top underneath, lace-up black leather pants, and heeled black boots. There's the possible excuse of echoing the dark of Klaus' Arena for his stylist, but Allison's not an idiot.

His stylist has made him into a doll, a toy for the Capitol to have their fun with. Allison has to wonder if Klaus has already started his rounds or if he's being auctioned off this very night for his first client.

Allison swallows back nausea. They’re both too young. They’re too young to be killers, to be whores, to be dealing with this secondary Arena that they're never going to fucking escape.

She nods. "Sure," she says, and he places a surprisingly gentle hand on her stomach. His expression shifts from that come-hither, slightly drunk one of a Victor whore into an awed one of a kid experiencing something good for the first time.

“Girl or boy?” Klaus asks, voice quiet and soft in a way that only someone unbroken by years of life in the Capitol could be, in a way only a kid can be.

(The Capitol's gonna destroy him.)

“I don’t know yet,” Allison admits.

“They're gonna be beautiful," Klaus says, voice earnest.

Is Allison a horrible mother to wish that her child is ugly? That maybe, if they don’t carry physical beauty, the Capitol might not be interested in her baby?

(Or maybe, they'll just force her daughter into surgery or implants down the line. There really is no winning with the Capitol.)

“Thank you," she says, because nothing she was thinking can be said here, at the President's Ball, and Klaus grins, pulling his hand away from her dress.

"Invite me to the baby shower, okay?" Klaus says, and she nods. He's perhaps the only person in the Capitol who she would actually want at her baby shower.

"Of course," Allison says with a smile she doesn't quite feel, because she knows what's going to happen to him in the coming months. Klaus has no extreme talents, no heroic stature to be paraded among the Districts or technological talent to be used by the Capitol's propaganda machine.

He's going to be the Capitol's whore until the bitter end, just like her. 

He gives her a small wave, a dramatic waggle of the fingers, and then fades back into the crowd to be devoured by the Capitolites.

-

In some ways, Allison's approaching child is her salvation, earning her early Sponsorships and secrets that she wouldn't have gotten otherwise. In some ways, they are her nightmare.

When Allison had tried to sleep after the pregnancy announcement, her usual nightmares about killing all those kids in the grasslands had been replaced by nightmares of the dark, of the past year's Arena. Klaus won the 70th Hunger Games by outlasting clicking mutts and monsters in the dark. There were no grand battles, no back-stabbing and vicious attacks by one tribute against the other- just a long slog of monsters and mutts and horrible clicking and tapping noises.

In twelve short years, Allison's baby girl will have her name put into the Reaping. Imagining her child- Claire if a girl, Troy if a boy- dying in the Games at the claws of a mutt terrifies Allison.

Is it really worth it, using her pregnancy as a poltiical tool, if the child that is spawned from the pregnancy is doomed to a fate as bad or worse than Allison's?

-

When Claire is born, a cool Spring morning two months before the Hunger Games, Allison stares at her baby girl in her arms. Claire is a beautiful baby girl, with her father’s blue eyes and Allison’s dark skin.

She gives birth in the Capitol, and there's no one here in the city she actually wants to visit her. Not the escort who originally introduced her to her first client, not the stylists who she's been working with for a few years now, and definitely not President Hargreeves.

Except for...no, she couldn't ask. He's got no obligation to visit, just because they're both Victors. He doesn't owe her shit.

But he still shows up. A few hours after Claire is born, Klaus shows up at the door of her apartment. Her Avox Larina lets him in, and he enters the living room where she's been resting for the past day after giving birth. He's not wearing makeup beyond just a touch of eyeliner, is dressed just in a faded white and yellow shirt and jeans. He doesn't look like a Victor or a whore- instead, he just looks like a young kid, like some sort of younger brother. 

He's sixteen and young and his smile is earnest. "I wanted to say congrats," he says, "And meet the little bundle of joy."

"Bundle of joy" is not exactly what Allison would use to describe Claire, not with the nightmares she's been having since the pregnancy announcement, but Allison can't help but smile anyway. Klaus' joy is pretty infectious.

"Do you want to hold her?" Allison offers, holding up her daughter, who is wrapped in the finest blankets from District One, made of textiles from Klaus' own District Eight.

Klaus blinks. "You sure you want me to hold her?"

Allison nods. "I trust you."

Any District citizen and probably any Capitolite would hesitate before handing their child over to a Victor of the Games, of a competition where you only survive by letting other children die, but Allison's a Victor herself. She understands doing what it takes to survive, how much even a small amount of trust and care can mean so fucking much after the Games end.

So Klaus is the third person to hold Claire, after Allison and Larina, who helped her give birth. He does it carefully, cradling Claire's head as Allison hands her daughter to him.

As he does so, though, Allison notices the tattoos on his hands. "When did that happen?" She asks, pointing to the  **HELLO** and  **GOODBYE** tattooed across each palm.

"Few weeks back," he says, not tearing his eyes away from Claire. "My stylist said that tattoos are easier ways to fit in with the Capitol, and suggested a few that would remind people of my status as a Victor. I liked the idea of one of them, and had it changed a bit to fit me."

Allison nods. She remembers her first year in the Capitol, when she'd had her curls dyed gold in order to emphasize her "high" status and to fit in better with the Capitol. The change had netted her more clients, and more expensive rates. 

Claire lets out a small gurgling sound, and Allison smiles. She's still a little tired from yesterday's labor, even if the pills Larina gave her eased the pain during the process, but she can't help but feel fondness well up in her chest. "I think she likes you."

Klaus' smile is young and completely sincere. "You think so?"

Allison nods. "Yeah," she says, "I know she does."

Klaus' grin widens, and she can't believe, looking at him, that just a few nights ago he went home with a Capitol client from that party at the Trinkets' or that almost a year ago, he won the Hunger Games.

(She wonders who, looking at her, would think the same thing.)

Then the door bell rings and this tiny family moment shatters. Allison gets up from the sofa, feeling the stitches in her stomach stretch with the movement, and she opens the door to the President himself.

"Hello, Allison," President Hargreeves says, and the way he says her name sends a chill down her spine.

But she's as close to a politician as a Victor is going to get. "Hello, President Hargreeves," she says, and her voice isn't shaking with the fear she feels. "How are you doing today?"

"I was just stopping by to see the baby," President Hargreeves, and looks a little bit past Allison to Klaus, who's frozen stiff with Claire still curled in his arms. "And it seems young Klaus has already done so."

Allison's nearly shit-scared of what President Hargreeves might do to both Claire and Klaus, who in this moment both seem far too fragile and vulnerable. "Yes, Klaus was kind enough to do so," Allison says, "Just as you were, sir."

"Well, I won't hold you three up much," President Hargreeves says, and everything about his tone makes her want to run. "I just wanted to suggest to you, dear, that little Claire will be far better suited to life in District One than in the Capitol, don't you think?" President Hargreeves asks, and Allison kind of wants to scream. She knows that she won't get to stay in District 1, that she'll have to stay here in the Capitol to do whatever President Hargreeves decides his precious Victors have to take care of. "She needs to know how her mother grew up."

Klaus steps forward and goes to protest, and Allison places a hand on his shoulder to shut him up. Allison's most beautiful words and designs will do nothing to help save her daughter, and Klaus' definitely can't, as unused as he is to politics. As honest as he is, he'll probably just make things even worse, in his attempt to help.

Allison and Klaus can't go against the President's orders, or else. President Hargreeves may not hurt Claire right now, while she's still a darling of the Capitol, but he can manipulate things down the road. He can have Claire Reaped when she's only twelve, can have an accident happen, can kill Allison and leave Claire an orphan, can kill Klaus and leave Allison alone in the Capitol.

"She should go to District 1 by the end of the month, don't you think?" President Hargreeves asks, and the noose tightens. "Get her adjusted as soon as possible."

And this is why President Hargreeves is making Allison get rid of Claire- both as blackmail and so that she can't get too attached. She can't be allowed to have hope growing beside her in the Capitol, can't be allowed to have her family here. Anything to control his precious Victors.

"Of course, sir," Allison says, because that's the only thing she can say.

President Hargreeves smiles. "Good to hear, Allison." He gives her and Klaus the smallest of nods. "I do bid you two a good day."

The door falls shut behind President Hargreeves after he leaves and Allison stumbles back a little to sit on the sofa.

"I'm here for you, Allison," Klaus says, so young, so brave, and he shouldn't have to be but she's biting back tears. She's only had a day with her daughter, and she already loves Claire more than she can say.

"Thank you," she says, "And I really do mean it. But can I...do you mind if I hold Claire again?"

Klaus nods hurriedly and carefully hands back Claire, who Allison cradles in her arms as Klaus sits down in her armchair. She has to give up Claire within the month, has to send her to live with someone she can trust in District 1. How is she going to do that? How is she going to figure out a way to keep her daughter as safe as she can?

After a few moments, Klaus asks, "Can he just get us to do whatever he wants?"

The question is dangerously treasonous, but Klaus deserves an answer. "As a Victor," Allison says, staring down at her daughter, "You learn to do whatever you can to survive." She swallows. "You're already really good at that, Klaus, already. That's how you made it out of the Arena. You're good at outlasting the horrible things."

"This is going to happen for the rest of our lives?" Klaus asks, voice going a bit pitched. "I'm gonna have to be a...gonna have to-" His words stumble over themselves. "I'm gonna have to be a  _whore_ for the rest of my life?"

Allison nods. She hates it, absolutely despises it, but that's just the way things are. "As long as the President wishes. Our lives are President Hargreeves' to do what he wishes, for the rest of our lives, or else. Our tributes die earlier, our families die painfully, we suffer. The only way to make it out with any sort of happiness is to go along." 

"I've gotta get my hands on a drink," Klaus says, voice a bit choked, and now he sounds not like a kid, but like a Victor. He sounds as miserable and resigned as the rest of them, and Allison kind of misses the boy from a few minutes ago, so joyous and young.

But in the Capitol, Victors never get to be kids for long. Allison knows this all too well, and she has the feeling that Klaus has already started to realize that.

"Whatever gets you through," Allison says, and telling a sixteen-year-old to drink is probably not the most ethical decision in the world, but she's not in a position where she can really give priority to the moral side of things anymore.

So fuck it, whatever gets Klaus through the day. It's clear that they're gonna have to make it through somehow, and Allison won't begrudge him whatever it takes to make it easier. 

-

So Claire goes to live in District One, as President Hargreeves decides, and Klaus doesn't get to see her again. Allison gets to visit the District every third weekend, arriving on the train from the Capitol to see her daughter, who is being watched by Brian's sister. When there, she tells her daughter stories about her "Uncles" and eventually "Aunt," the Victors Allison gets to know better than anyone else.

(Most of all, she tells Allison stories about her Uncle Klaus, brave and kind despite everything that's happening.)

-

Two months after Claire is born, the 70th Hunger Games arrive, and this seems to be a decent year for Careers. Other than that unfortunate beheading of the boy from Four by a surprisingly strong tribute from Seven, the tributes from One and Two seem to be pretty well off. Her tributes seem to be doing pretty well for themselves thanks to her Sponsorships.

And then a dam breaks, flooding the entire Arena, and the insane girl from Four takes the Victory. 

"There was no chance we'd win anyway," Klaus consoles himself, halfway through a bottle of vodka, and she pats him on the shoulder. She remembers her own first Games as a Mentor, the one right before Klaus where her male tribute had made it to the final Four before being beheaded by a hulking tribute from Two.

After Annie trembles her way through her Victor interview and President Hargreeves' bestowal of her crown, Allison knows that the political implications of turning her into a whore are not good ones. And she knows that President Hargreeves knows that just as well as Allison does, so when Finnick Odair continues servicing all of District Four's sexual favors, it's not that big a surprise. 

-

Over the years after Claire's birth, Allison and Klaus pass each other at parties, each on the arm of a different Capitolite, and they lock gazes sometimes, natural brown eyes surrounded by makeup recognizing each other from across a room. They understand each other, in this wretched shared empathy. They understand this loss of innocence, this game of survival.

They grow into adults, stunted emotionally though they may be. Allison watches as Klaus loses much of that innocent, sincere smile he had when Claire was born.

Occasionally, they'll have dinner together, get drunk together, talk through slurred words and the debauchery of Capitol parties. Klaus uses drugs a lot more than Allison does to deal with everything, and she doesn't blame him. If she didn't have Claire-weekends or politics do work through, she's pretty sure she would turn to Morphling or pills or alcohol to get through everything.

And every year, the Games arrive, and every year, they each lose two tributes, Klaus usually a lot quicker than Allison. (Allison has to wonder which is worse- the knowledge that there is no hope that Klaus lives with, or the savage dagger of hope that skewers her every year, when her tributes make it to the Final Eight, Four, and sometimes Final Two but always end up dying anyway.)

But they get used to it, just like they got used to the politics and the unwanted sex and the absence of Claire. In order to survive, to stay even a little sane, you have to learn what you cannot change, to accept the things you have to do to make it through life.

-

The 71st Games arrives, and Allison actually thinks she has a chance. Her female tribute this year- a seventeen-year-old named Diamond- is an absolute wonder with a mace  _and_ throwing knives, and has a ruthless streak that will do her well. 

But then the tiny little tribute from District 3- the one with the dark gaze and the almost suspiciously low four in training- blows her tributes to kingdom come and for a few minutes she's left blinking at the dead screens in front of her, Luther, Hazel, and Lyme. 

When the kid- christened "Five" by Caesar Flickerman- takes home the Victory after blowing up five more tributes, Allison thanks every bit of luck the world might have that he's got something to offer the Capitol besides his body.

(She has no illusions as to what lengths the Capitol is willing to go to. Finnick Odair was conscripted into being a whore at fourteen, Allison herself at fifteen, Klaus at sixteen. The idea is horrifying, but to some of the depraved Capitolites, twelve might not seem like too young.)

But Five has his brain to offer the Capitol's tech programs, and so Allison can rest easy. President Hargreeves won't let one of his precious technicians get distracted by the "lower" ways in which the President uses his Victors.

So Five stays untouched, and Allison breathes a sigh of relief even as she and Klaus continue on in their jobs as Capitol playthings.

-

The 72nd Games rolls around, and Klaus doesn't stay in the Capitol afterwards. Allison can't blame him, but she is a bit curious as to why.

For a year Klaus visits the Capitol maybe once every two months, and Allison notices the fact that he's smiling genuinely on nearly a constant basis, that he's wearing a bit less Capitol-wear and more toned-down, District 8 clothing, that his eyes are clear of any drugs.

(Allison still hasn't learned why, but she's too happy for her friend to care. She wants nothing more than for Klaus to be happy, to have finally found something that's keeping him from the Capitol and its toxicity.) 

Then Klaus shows up in the Capitol a few weeks before the 73rd Games and all of that lightness is gone. In its place is a full face of Capitol makeup, an outrageous black outfit, a fake smile, and eyes muddled by Morphling.

"He's gone," he tells Allison, on the roof of his apartment complex a few nights after he'd arrived back at the Capitol. There aren't any cameras up here, and they're mostly okay to speak their minds. There's a bottle of alcohol between their laps that they share, though Klaus takes twice as many sips as she does. "I loved this guy and he died. Accident in the mills, the Peacekeepers told me."

That's obvious bullshit, and from the curl in Klaus lips it's clear he knows that too.

Allison, just like every Victor, has heard the stories of Haymitch and Chaff and, most recently, Johanna Mason. She knows that Klaus basically quit being a whore after the 72nd Games, and it must have been for this guy. President Hargreeves couldn't have been okay with that.

"What was his name?" Allison asks, voice as gentle as she can make it.

"Dave," Klaus says, and now there are tears leaking out of his eyes. Allison pulls him into a hug and he shudders, his body trembling against hers as he sobs.

(Yeah, hope is definitely worse than resigning yourself to the inevitability of loss.)

-

When they go back down to his apartment, his eyes are dry and his smile fixed.

"You guys have fun looking at the stars?" Ben asks, and it seems like such a casual question but his gaze is focused on Klaus. He got back from District 8 on the same train that Klaus did, a few days ago.

There's something to be said for how much Ben cares about Klaus. Not many mentors are such close friends with the tributes they save- usually, mentors are friends-of-sorts with Victors from other Districts, and only acquaintances with Victors from their own Districts. 

Klaus nods. "Totally recommend it, man," he says, making a path for the kitchen.

Allison turns to Ben as Klaus pulls down a couple of glasses and starts to pour various drinks. "You two ready for this year's Games?"

Ben's gaze flickers. "As ready as I'll ever be," he says, which basically translates to  _we've got no chance._

Allison nods. "Well, may the odds be ever in your favor."

Ben cracks a bit of a wry smile at that. "You too, Allison."

Allison doesn't correct him about the fact that she won't be mentoring this year- the sentiment and its reference to their shared experience within the Arena is taken as it's meant. "I'll see you both for the opening ceremony."

"We'll meet you there," Ben says, "I'll see if I can't get Klaus a little sober for it."

 _Fat luck_ , Allison doesn't say. She's known Klaus over the years- getting him sober when he's this far into a bottle is no easy task. Instead, she turns to leave the apartment, and her hand is on the door handle when Ben says, "Thank you for taking care of him."

Allison doesn't need a translation as to who he's referring to. "Thank you, too," she says, because for years, the short vacations Klaus took to Eight were all that made him happy until this year's prolonged trip and Dave, Klaus' love, made him want to stay and make something more than their just-survival in the Capitol.

Ben gives her a small, sad smile. "Taking care of Klaus will never be a problem for me."

"Neither here," Allison agrees, and then leaves. 

-

The 73rd Games dawns, and Klaus is actually drunk throughout the entire thing. He doesn't get sober like he usually does, but it doesn't really matter- his tribute goes down in the bloodbath and Ben's dies of hypothermia on the third day.

Allison, on the other hand, is not one of the main mentors from One this year. They have enough Victors that she doesn't have to pull a shift at this year's Games- instead, she goes to the Opening Ceremony and then watches the rest from the community center near her apartment. She hooks a few Sponsors in the meantime, directing them to turn their payment to Gloss and Hazel, but as District One's tributes start to freeze to death and all the cameras start to focus on the girl from Five who is holed up in the only warm spot in the Arena, as far from everyone else as possible, the Sponsorships start to dry up.

Klaus stumbles into her apartment the night that Vanya is declared the Victor. "We've gotta help her out," Klaus says, eyes bright, voice heavy. "Make sure that she doesn't have to go through what we did."

He's drunk, definitely, but he's determined, she's gotta give it to him.

"If she didn't win by accident," Allison says, because it's very likely that Vanya didn't, considering the fact that the warm spot moved places in the Arena to only specifically benefit a girl from an outlier region. "Then the President is likely to scoop her up for the technology unit."

Klaus blinks. "That's good."

Allison looks over him, at the dark circles under his eyes and the bottle in his hand. He's a wreck, and he's doing even more damage to himself than he did before Dave.

"You wanna sleep here tonight?" she offers, and he stares at her. She rolls her eyes. "Klaus, you don't have any Sponsorships to clear- your last tribute died six days ago, and in those three days did not rack up enough Sponsored gifts that you'd have to sleep with enough people to last until now. The interview will be tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure you could use a friend tonight."

Klaus glances between her and the bottle in his hand. "You sure you want me here? When I'm like this?"

Allison lets out a small sigh. "You're family, Klaus. Of course you're welcome here."

Klaus' gaze searches her face and apparently must not find anything wrong as he says, "Let me just comm Ben and tell him I'm not coming home tonight."

She smiles. Tomorrow's gonna be a bitch, but at least for now, Klaus is here and safe. She can monitor his drinking and keep it down to a reasonable level and hopefully keep him away from any of the more extreme drugs like Morphling.

So Klaus takes care of comming Ben and soon enough, they're busy eating the Capitol delicacy of 'pizza,' a favorite of both of theirs, and playing an old card game called Spades that, according to legend, used to be pretty big in all the Districts before eventually only being played in District 8. Klaus had taught it to her, one of those first non-Claire weekends, when their appointments as toys were done and they'd been seeking some kind of respite from the frivolities of the Capitol.

All in all, it's one of the best possible ways to spend an evening, here in the Capitol, in an apartment that lacks a nursery, in the aftermath of the Games that broke both of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Does this explain how Allison knew Dave the Avox was to be trusted in the rebellion story? I hope so.
> 
>  
> 
> Hope you guys all liked this story! It is definitely one of the darkest I've ever written, and I hope I managed to convey everything well. If you liked it, comments are always appreciated- constructive criticism and positive comments alike! They help move the story forward (in fact, this fic never would have been written without comments requesting more backstory) and really motivate me to write. Also, you know, they just make me really happy.


End file.
